OutRun Accused Of Plagiarism???? TX-1 The Game...

I was browsing thru random racing game vids the other day and I came across this old game I've never heard before.  It's called "TX-1" which doesn't make any sense.  It was developed by Tatsumi (who's that?) and published by Atari in 1983.

...

Game seems innocuous at first.  Reminds me of Pole Position but with super wide-screen vision (16:5 ratio???).  You're driving this red F1 which looks like it was drawn in Windows Paint.  But then:

You come to a fork in the road.  Take left or right and travel to foreign worlds...

Oh, this fork is leading me into a tunnel...

And now I am in a completely different part of the world!

Now I am in yet another part of the world as you can see.

Now I am someplace else and I have ANOTHER set of crossroads!  Wait, crossroads--that reminds me of...

Outrun

OUTRUN IS A RIPOFF!!!! TX-1 CAME OUT IN '83, OUTRUN IN '86!!! WE'VE BEEN MISLED!!! THE SEGA LEGACY IS RUINED, LIFE IS OVER, DELETE THIS BLOG IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

SEGA NEVER STEALS ANYONE'S IDEAS...RIGHT???  HEY GUYS, I'M ON THE ROOF!!!

HOW COULD YU DO THIS!!!!!!!!!

--wait, OutRun deploys the 1-2-3-4-5 diamond, TX-1 uses the 1-2-4-8 elimination bracket, so it's not 100% the same thing.  Sega can snatch, grab, run like hell with whatever they want since they're Sega and they need every edge they can get nowadays.  Plus TX-1 looks like crap and OutRun doesn't.  So don't reach for that big red button yet.

Remember kids, don't drink & drive...

...and while you're at it, don't smoke crack.

Dayum, too much drugs, now I'm seeing s***.